Steve Toltz Quotes

Quotes about:

• I've been labelled many times - a criminal, an anarchist, a rebel, sometimes human garbage, but never a philosopher, which is a pity because that's what I am. I chose a life apart from the common flow, not only because the common flow makes me sick but because I question the logic of the flow, and not only that - I don't know if the flow exists! Why should I chain myself to the wheel when the wheel itself might be a construct, an invention, a common dream to enslave us?

  Steve Toltz

  Dream, Sick, Criminals

  50 Copy quote

• Or about how when you're a child, to stop you from following the crowd you're assaulted with the line "If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?" but when you're an adult and to be different is suddenly a crime, people seem to be saying, "Hey. Everyone else is jumping off a bridge. Why aren't you?

  Steve Toltz

  Children, Jumping, Bridges

  Steve Toltz (2008). “A Fraction of the Whole”, p.529, Spiegel & Grau

  27 Copy quote

• Sometimes not talking is effortless, and other times it’s more exhausting than lifting pianos.

  Steve Toltz

  Relationship, Talking, Piano

  Steve Toltz (2008). “A Fraction of the Whole”, p.329, Spiegel & Grau

  19 Copy quote

• When we finished the kiss she said laughing, I can taste your loneliness - it tastes like vinegar. That annoyed me. Everyone knows loneliness tastes like cold potato soup.

  Steve Toltz

  Loneliness, Kissing, Laughing

  Steve Toltz (2008). “A fraction of the whole”

  18 Copy quote

• Sometimes they [people] throw off their freedom so quickly, you'd think it was burning them.

  Steve Toltz

  Thinking, People, Burning

  8 Copy quote

• There’s nothing wonderful or interesting about unrequited love. I think it’s shitty, just plain shitty. To love someone who doesn’t return your affections might be exciting in books, but in life it’s unbearably boring. I’ll tell you what’s exciting: sweaty, passionate nights. But sitting on the veranda outside the home of a sleeping woman who isn’t dreaming about you is slow moving and just plain sad.

  Steve Toltz

  Dream, Moving, Book

  Steve Toltz (2008). “A Fraction of the Whole”, p.116, Spiegel & Grau

  17 Copy quote

• There are men put on this earth to make laws designed to break the spirits of men. There are those put here to have their spirits broken by those put here to break them. Then there are those who are here to break the laws that break the men who break the spirits of other men. I am one of those men. - Harry West

  Steve Toltz

  Men, Law, Broken

  Steve Toltz (2008). “A Fraction of the Whole”, p.132, Spiegel & Grau

  18 Copy quote

• When you put so much effort to forget someone, the effort itself becomes a memory. Then you have to forget the forgetting, and that too is memorable.

  Steve Toltz

  Memories, Memorable, Effort

  Steve Toltz (2008). “A Fraction of the Whole”, p.13, Spiegel & Grau

  13 Copy quote

• I was so happy I wanted to fold all the people into paper airplanes and fly them into the lidless eye of that big yellow moon.

  Steve Toltz

  Airplane, Eye, Moon

  Steve Toltz (2008). “A fraction of the whole”

  11 Copy quote

• I think that's the real loss of innocence: the first time you glimpse the boundaries that will limit your potential.

  Steve Toltz

  Real, Loss, Thinking

  Steve Toltz (2008). “A fraction of the whole”

  11 Copy quote

• The game is an analogy for life: there are not enough chairs or good times to go around, not enough food, not enough joy, nor beds nor jobs nor laughs nor friends nor smiles nor money nor clean air to breathe...and yet the music goes on.

  Steve Toltz

  Jobs, Air, Games

  Steve Toltz (2008). “A Fraction of the Whole”, p.37, Spiegel & Grau

  4 Copy quote

• I don't have a great respect for reality or getting the 'facts' as a means of putting together a story.

  Steve Toltz

  Mean, Reality, Together

  4 Copy quote

• You experience life alone, you can be as intimate with another as much as you like, but there has to be always a part of you and your existence that is incommunicable; you die alone, the experience is yours alone, you might have a dozen spectators who love you, but your isolation, from birth to death, is never fully penetrated.

  Steve Toltz

  Love You, Dozen, Might

  Steve Toltz (2008). “A fraction of the whole”

  7 Copy quote

• Losers blame their parents; Failures blame their kids.

  Steve Toltz

  Kids, Parent, Blame

  7 Copy quote

• Amen' is like the Send button on an email.

  Steve Toltz

  Buttons, Email, Amen

  Steve Toltz (2008). “A Fraction of the Whole”, p.8, Spiegel & Grau

  12 Copy quote

• I didn't think anyone who had to demand respect ever got it.

  Steve Toltz

  Thinking, Demand

  4 Copy quote

• Regrets came up and asked me if I’d like to own them. Declined them for the most part but took a few just so I wouldn’t leave this relationship empty handed.

  Steve Toltz

  Regret, Empty, Ifs

  Steve Toltz (2008). “A Fraction of the Whole”, p.214, Spiegel & Grau

  10 Copy quote

• That's how we slide, and while we slide we blame the world's problems on colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, corporatism, stupid white men, and America, but there's no need to make a brand name of blame. Individual self-interest: that's the source of our descent, and it doesn't start in the boardrooms or the war rooms either. It starts in the home.

  Steve Toltz

  War, Stupid, Home

  Steve Toltz (2008). “A Fraction of the Whole”, p.89, Spiegel & Grau

  12 Copy quote

• It's the idea of baggage. When you hear about people in their 40s boast about not having baggage. I think having no baggage is your baggage. That means that you haven't thrown yourself into the mess of life.

  Steve Toltz

  Mean, Thinking, People

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  9 Copy quote

• To have a child is to be impaled daily on the spike of responsibility.

  Steve Toltz

  Children, Responsibility

  Steve Toltz (2008). “A Fraction of the Whole”, p.196, Spiegel & Grau

  9 Copy quote

• Don't be afraid to have nothing.

  Steve Toltz

  Steve Toltz (2008). “A Fraction of the Whole”, p.157, Spiegel & Grau

  9 Copy quote

• People carry their secrets in hidden places, not on their faces. They carry suffering on their faces. Also bitterness if there’s room.

  Steve Toltz

  People, Suffering, Secret

  Steve Toltz (2008). “A Fraction of the Whole”, p.227, Spiegel & Grau

  5 Copy quote

• Fear of death is understandable, being that we are all going to die, but fear of life and suffering is more of an irrational fear because it's something that can be avoided. The torturous part is that suffering can be avoided if you have good luck. That's somewhat out of our hands, but is it? I don't know. "Is bad luck self-harm by another name?"

  Steve Toltz

  Good Luck, Suffering, Bad Luck

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

• The universe doesn't really care if you bounce back. It doesn't feel that weird to write about paralysis or being in hospital or losing a child or, you know, splitting up with your wife, because that's just life.

  Steve Toltz

  Children, Writing, Wife

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

• Optimism isnt funny unless you are laughing at the person, whereas extreme pessimism is extremely funny. Its exaggeration.

  Steve Toltz

  Laughing, Optimism, Pessimism

  10 Copy quote

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